Crime fighting laundry marks

A rather different detective story connected to laundry marks, I found this fascinating reading:

'In many instances clothing worn is still identifiable after the body has gone with the elements. In any event the body may outlast the clothing or the clothing may outlast the body and any police department equipped to extract the last shred of evidence or clue from either has a definite ace in the sleeve.'

'... it is my experience that nearly everyone, knowingly or not, has traceable clues in his or her clothing.' Adam Yulch, 1946

Thank goodness!

Reading

Over the past few months I have read an enormous amount about costume related subjects. From fashion research theories, costume histories and pattern cutting to social history and consumer culture, the project has taken me through a diverse range of topics. In fact that has been one of the really interesting things for me; that one object can be read from so many different angles and can open out so many subjects. This is a way of working that really appeals to me as a researcher, starting with something very specific and by 'unpicking' it understanding all the different ways of 'reading' it.

I have been writing up a bibliography on the side bar if you are interested to see the range of texts I have been using. I have also been accessing some interesting libraries, including the National Art Library at the V&A, Manchester Metropolitan University and of course our wonderful library at Bradford College. I have also tracked down a couple of items through inter-library loans from the British Library and bought a couple of back issues of journals from Abe Books. I love the process of tracking things down, and have been grateful for the time I spent working as a librarian gaining the necessary skills.

You can find my ever growing bibliography on the right bar of this blog.

Cut My Cote

This is an excellent reference and has helped me enormously in understanding the evolution of the shirt form. I also found it helpful to see how the different pieces could be cut from the width of cloth and hope to make some comparisons from my own research.